Toronto Masters: Paul survives Schwartzman comeback

American Tommy Paul, the No 12 seed, reached the second round of the Toronto Masters by edging out Argentinian qualifier Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at the Aviva Centre on Tuesday night.

It was a messy affair, with neither player grabbing the match by the scruff of the neck until Paul broke in the final game of the match to claim the victory.

What a battle 🥊

Paul survives Schwartzman’s comeback to sneak through to R2!#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/rPO54oL1WS

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 8, 2023

With plenty of errors on both sides of the net from two players who haven’t had the best of years, the American will be relieved to have won ugly, and live to fight another day.

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Paul, ranked No 14, will play Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo next.

Toronto Masters, other first-round matches (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 6,600,000):

• Milos Raonic (WC) beat Frances Tiafoe (9): 6-7 (12), 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Taro Daniel (Q) beat Adrian Mannarino: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Gael Monfils beat Christopher Eubanks: 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 6-1
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q) beat Zhizhen Zhang: 7-5, 6-4
• Hubert Hurkacz (15) beat Alexander Bublik: 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Matteo Berrettini beat Gregoire Barrere: 6-4, 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat J.J. Wolf: 6-0, 6-2
• Jiri Lehecka beat Brandon Nakashima: 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2)
• Lorenzo Musetti (16) beat Yoshihito Nishioka: 6-4, 6-1
• Francisco Cerundolo beat Alexis Galarneau (WC): 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Max Purcell
• Ben Shelton vs. Bernabe Zapata Miralles
• Gabriel Diallo vs. Daniel Evans
• Alex De Minaur vs. Cameron Norrie
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Borna Coric
• Ugo Humbert vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Andy Murray
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Aslan Karatsev
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Sebastian Korda
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Marcos Giron
• Vasek Pospisil vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Cristian Garin vs. Miomir Kecmanovic